


to my little bug

by spicywonton



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Character Death, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 21:19:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14723783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spicywonton/pseuds/spicywonton
Summary: dedicated to my ella <3





	to my little bug

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to my ella <3 

Jughead placed the plate of pasta in front of his daughter, she smiled up at him with a gummy grin and her big green eyes. Her two front teeth had both fallen out at the same time, his heart warmed thinking about how excited she had been leaving her teeth under her pillow for the tooth fairy. Her excitement matched in the morning when she found the coins the tooth fairy had left in their place. She wanted to save enough to buy herself a journal, and his heart had grown a size or two. So much like her Mother, especially as she sat there with her blonde hair Jughead couldn't bring himself to cut.

"Daddy?" She had picked up her fork and was now pushing the pasta around in her plate with disinterest, very much unlike her. She had taken after her Dad in the food aspect, which he was rather proud of.

"What's up, bug?" He asked as he sat opposite her at the dining table.

"Did Mummy like pasta?" She looked up at him with eyes just like Betty's and Jughead had to mask the pain that took residence on his face whenever his wife's name was mentioned.

"Junie, Mummy loved pasta. Just like you. And do you know what else?" He wanted Juniper to know every last detail about her Mother, who she was and how she loved, and one day he would tell her their whole story, but not yet. It was a bit heavy for a 6 year old.

"What?" She asked, eyes wide in curiosity.

"She hated pumpkin, baby. Just like you."

"Yuck, punkin." She scrunched her nose up at the thought, crossing her arms in distaste. "People who like punkin are weird, Daddy. You're weird." Jughead let out a laugh at his daughters comment, knowing full well she wasn't wrong. Juniper finally stabbed a piece of pasta and popped it in her mouth, chewing around it and thinking of her next question. "What else did Mummy like?"

Jughead was always torn whenever Juniper asked about Betty. He wanted her to know every little detail about her Mum, but talking about her made his heart ache and his throat swell. And as much as he tried to put it off his mind couldn't help but bring that memory to the forefront. It was the best and the worst day of his life.

*  
The nurse placed the baby girl in Betty's arms, and Jughead swore he had never been as happy as he was in that moment. Even though Betty had just given birth to a damn human, she still looked like an angel. Her hair was stuck to her face with sweat, cheeks red, eyes brimming with tears of elation. She was staring down at her daughter in her arms with a look that Jugheads memory would never do justice. She spoke without taking her eyes away from her new born daughter.

"Juggie, we made her. Can you believe it?" Her voice was thick with love. Jughead had to swallow before he could speak.

"You did all the hard work, Betty. I'm so proud of you." He places a hard kiss to her temple. Betty finally managed to pull her eyes from her baby and smile a warm smile at her husband. "So, are we decided on her name?"

"Yes, it suits her don't you think?" Her eyes are back on her daughter. "Hey, little Juniper. You want to meet your Daddy?" Jughead is more careful than he's ever been as he takes his daughter from Betty. As he's looking down at her little face, her eyes taking him in, he can't help but think all the cliches to life. She is the sweetest thing he's ever seen, and he's so in love. He curled his finger around her little hand.

"Hey, Juniper. I'm your Daddy, baby girl." He didn't even notice the single tear that rolled down his face. "You and your Mummy are the the best things in my life, and I promise I will never let anyone or anything hurt either of you."

*

He broke that promise very shortly. Not intentionally, and by no choice of his own.

"Daddy?" Junipers voice broke him from his reverie.

"Sorry, baby. Let's see, what did Mummy like?" He pinched his chin with his thumb in forefinger with a funny look on his face that caused a burst of giggles from his daughter. "She liked movies, especially the old ones."

"Like black and white ones?" She asked her Dad.

"Some of them were, yeah. And she liked vanilla milkshakes. She liked to read. And she loved to write." Junipers eyes lit up at this new revelation.

"Really Daddy? Like me?" Her smile was contagious.

"Yeah, Junie, just like you." He leaned over the table to say quietly, "She wrote to you, you know. When you were in her tummy." She was nearly jumping in her seat.

"Can we read some, Daddy? Pleeeaaaase?" She almost yelled in excitement, giving another toothless grin at her Father.

"Of course, sweetie. When you finish your dinner, how about you have a bath and we'll read some tucked in bed?" Juniper shovelled more than a mouthful of pasta into her mouth at once, and quickly stood from her chair and pushed it in.

"All finished!" She said through a mouthful of food. Jughead cold only laugh at how much she looked like him right then.

"Alright, my little bug. I'll go run that bath."

Once he had Juniper in the bath, he went to his bedroom and pulled the box down from the top of his closet. Only on occasion would he pull out the journal that Betty had filled with pages and pages for Juniper. He ran his hand over pink front cover.

Betty's pregnancy had been complicated from the start, and there was a lot of talk of worst case scenarios and so many take it easy mentions that she had stopped working at the Registery. So at night when she couldn't sleep from being so anxious for her baby, and with the lack of writing she was doing now, she channeled it all into this journal she was going to gift to her little girl one day. At first Jughead couldn't understand, she would be up all hours and he would worry that she was never getting enough sleep. He would tell her it was silly, nothing would happen and she could tell their little girl everything herself soon enough. But she ignored him and did it anyway, and he came to understand. And now he was eternally grateful to his wife for her determination to do it.

It was all that Juniper would have of her Mother that was her own, not things she would hear from Jughead, or her grandparents or Auntie Polly and Uncle Arch.

This journal was for her, and when she was old enough to understand he would gift it to her and she could read it all herself, take from it whatever she wanted. But for now he could read her a page or two.

*

Jughead walked around the room a few times with his new born daughter in his arms, and he never wanted to put her down. But when Betty ushered him back to her with an "Oi" and a hand wave, he obeyed.

He sat down on the bed with Betty gently as not to move her too much. For all the complications during her pregnancy the birth had run smooth. He repositioned Juniper in his arms so that her little head was between the two new parents.

"I think she looks like you, Jug. What do you think?" She pecked a tiny kiss on her daughters head.

"She beautiful, Betts. Which she only could have gotten from you." Betty swatted his arm and let out a laugh.

"Oh, shush you." She leaned toward him and kissed him softly, pausing against his lips and smiling. "I love you so much, Jughead. I'm so happy right now. I can't believe this is my life." She had her eyes closed, she was a little pale and he thought of how exhausted she must be.

"I love you more than you'll ever know, baby." He kissed her back. "Do you want me to let you get some rest?" She quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him back to her as he went to move.

"No, stay. Both of you. I want to enjoy this moment." She lay her head against his shoulder and just watched her daughters face. She bought her hand up slowly to run it down Junipers cheek. "I love you, little bug. You are all I've ever wanted and you will be so loved by everyone, you have no idea." She was a little breathless as she spoke.

"Just us 3, against the world." Jughead said with a beaming smile. "Right, Mummy?" He looked back at Betty, and she was awfully still. His heart was in his throat when she didn't respond. "Betty? Betts?" He did his best to try and shake her awake with his shoulder while still holding Juniper. Betty's head slumped from his shoulder. "Betty! Oh, oh my god Betty. Help!" He was yelling now, trying to get someone's attention. He quickly jumped up and popped Juniper in her incubator, she was screaming and crying now with all the commotion but he had to get back to his wife who was lying motionless in her hospital bed. He put one hand around her neck and lifted her head, but there was no strength in her. "Fuck, Betty, please wake up baby. Come on. Help! My wife, please!" He reached up with his free hand and slammed the emergency button above her bed.

In less than a minute the room was flooded with nurses, they were pulling him away from Betty and he was resisting.

"That's my wife, you have to help her, please help her." His face was saturated in tears, his voice barely a whisper. He could barely remember anything after that except a nurse telling him "We are trying, Mr Jones, but we need the room. I know it's hard but please, I will come and get you when she's stable."

He did as he was told, and sat in the hallway outside her room with his head in his hands. Archie and Veronica were there with flowers and a teddy bear and so many questions, but he couldn't speak so they sat with him and waited. He couldn't shake the image of Betty lifeless out of his head. God. Please. Not now, he was begging. Praying.

"Take me instead, please I beg you. Take me instead, I'll do anything." He hadn't realise he'd been saying it out loud until a throat was cleared.

"Mr Jones?" Jughead quickly shot up, his heart in his throat.

"Yes, my wife, Betty? Is she okay? What's happened?" And when he saw the look on the doctors face, his heart fell from his throat through his chest and he swallowed it whole. He didn't even hear the words, it was just a mix of medical terms he couldn't understand and apologies. "We're sorry... Did all we could... postpartum hemorrhage..." All he really remembers is falling to the floor, Archie racing to catch him and Veronica sobbing.

*

Juniper was now in her pjs and snuggled under her covers. "Okay, ready Daddy."

"That's my girl." Jughead placed a kiss on her forehead and lay down next to Juniper on her little bed. "Should we start at the start?" He asked her.

"Yes!" She snuggled into her Dads shoulder. "Pretty." She noted, rubbing her hand over the pink cover of the journal in Jughead hand.

"Like you, baby girl." He placed another kiss on her forehead. "This is yours, Juniper. Mummy wrote it for you, and when you're old enough, it'll be yours to take care of. That okay?" He looked down at her, her eyes trained on the journal and her mouth in a little pout. So many times a day Jughead would catch her looking so much like Betty, normally in a moment of thought like she was now. She nodded at him.

"I wish I was old enough now."

"I know baby, but you're already growing up too fast for Daddy's liking. So too bad." He nudged her with his shoulder and she laughed at him.

"Quick, Dad! Read to me." She said a little impatiently.

"Sorry! Okay, let's read the first page. This one Mummy wrote when she first found out you were in her tummy,-"

"Babies don't grow in tummies Dad." He looked down at her in slight horror.

"Okay, this is what I meant by growing up too fast, smartie pants." She just smiled back at him and nudged him to carry on.

"Well then, Mummy wrote this for you when she first found out she was having you. The doctor told her that she had to be very careful and not to do too much with herself, so with all her free time she wrote to you." Jughead was waiting for a response from his daughter, and when he didn't get one he took it as means to carry on.

"To my little bug-"

"That's what you call me, Daddy." She said happily. Jughead could only smile.

"It's what me and Mummy called you before we knew you were a girl, before you were born." She contemplated that for a moment.

"Okay, I not stop you anymore. Keep going."

"To my little bug, I love you so much already. Me and Daddy can hardly believe you are in there! I can't wait until I can feel you moving in there, my love. I don't know if I can wait the 8 months to meet you. The doctor told Mummy I have to take it very easy, and your Daddy is making sure of that. He's going to be the best in the world baby, I just know it. You and I are so lucky to have him. I promise to fill this whole journal with stories about Mummy and Daddy, and all about our journey together while you're growing. I can't wait to see your face bug, I secretly hope you look just like your Daddy. I hope my heart is big enough for the both of you!."

"Daddy? You okay?" Juniper looked up at him and reached her little hand out to wipe a tear that had slipped down Jugheads cheek. "Why are you sad?" He kissed her hand that was against his face and put the journal on the ground,

"I just miss your Mum, bug. But I'm so lucky to have a little bit of her in you." Juniper snuggled in closer to her Dad. "I think that's enough for tonight, you need to sleep little one."

"You forgot before, Daddy. When you told me about what Mummy likes."

"Mm? What did I forget?" She looked up at him and he brushed her hair from her face. She had a smile on her face just like Betty's and it made his heart twist in his chest.

"You! Silly. Auntie Ronnie told me that you were Mummy's soul friend and I always remember." He could feel his eyes wanting to cry again but forced it back, he didn't want to end up upsetting Junie.

"Auntie Ronnie wasn't wrong, baby. Mummy is my soul mate." He lightly kissed her nose as he rose from her bed and tucked her in. "And you should be on that list too, Junie. She loved you more than anything."

He stood in her doorway for a moment after he switched off her light, her face illuminated from the light in the hall as she fell into a peaceful sleep. She was the perfect balance of himself and Betty, he thought. His heart broke more every day without her, but those glimpses of her in Juniper helped to mend it.

"I miss you, Betts. So much. I wish you could see her grow. There's so much you in her, and I wouldn't change it for the world. You knew I could never live without you, and with giving me her meant I never have too. I love you for that."


End file.
